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Monday, June 10, 2013

BA's Posting Challenge 9: Keeping Place

This week's topic: When it comes to keeping place in the book you’re reading, what’s your favorite method and has it changed over the years?
I have a confession to make: I'm a reformed dog-earer. It's true. Go ahead and judge me. But I wouldn't dream of dog-earing a book to keep my place these days. I don't really remember when my habit changed but it's been years now.

Luckily, I have a huge selection of bookmarks stashed all over the house. The biggest chunk is actually Dave's own collection of beautiful, old-fashioned leather bookmarks that he's collected from all over the place:

I don't use them very often though, they're displayed on one of our bookshelves. My current favorite is a dragon-themed bookmark from Galaxy Books that we picked up on our last trip to Sydney. My all-time favorite is the card that was attached to the first bunch of flowers Dave sent me, although that's currently languishing in a Wheel of Time, silently and scornfully marking the place I gave up on the series for the second time (towards the end of Book 4 - I made it as far as Book 9 the first time).

I also tend to hoard tags of clothes that are nice quality and bookmark-sized, and stash them next to my bed for when I need an emergency bookmark. And I'm not averse to using a scrap of paper in a pinch - store receipts work well in this regard. They're also perfect for shredding to make minor place markers - for example, a quote I like, or something I want to research.

I inherited a beautiful bookmark from my grandmother, but it's so pretty I haven't used it yet. It's currently on display on top of my jewelry box:

Of course, because I have a Kindle now I'm needing bookmarks less and less often. But I still treasure them. My Dad laughed at me recently when I gave my Mum a combination gift of a Kindle case and a hand-made bookmark. But I think Mum understood.